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As I sat in the office this afternoon I had an overwhelming urge for a “5 Guys” burger… then a sense of guilt kicked in. Why buy a burger when I could make my own that will taste just as good, if not better. So, I give you “Van’s Big Burger” which will yield two servings.

At this point, simply mix your oregano, shallot, salt, pepper, turmeric and sirloin. Create two evenly sized patties, wrap in plastic wrap, place in a freezer bag and… you guessed it (if you’ve been following my recent cooking method) cook with sous vide method. I wanted the burgers to be medium rare when they came out, so I cooked them at 135 degrees for an hour.

Place your oil into a pan, over a medium high heat, and wait until it starts to shimmer. At that point, place them in the oil…

As the fries are taking their bath, mix your seasoning… and place into a container that you can use to “sprinkle” on the fries when they come out of the oil. Make sure you fry for roughly 7 minutes… if you go over that you really risk your fries becoming soft. When you’ve reach your mark, place the fries into a colander and sprinkle with seasoning, shake to ensure coverage, and repeat until you are done with your fries.

By now, your burgers should have been in for roughly 35 to 45 minutes. Now it is time to mix up your peanut sauce…

Start with mixing your peanut butter and warm water. Rather quickly the peanut butter will break apart. Once this happens and the brown sugar and continue to mix, then add your soy sauce.

Right about now (the funk soul brother… sorry, Fatboy Slim popped into mind) your burgers will be read to take out. Remove from the water and toss into a frying pan to sear each side for roughly a minute or two… you can use your peanut sauce (my choice) or olive oil. Add your cheese (if you so desire). I did Colby Jack.

Now you are ready to garnish. I did spinach, a slice of red pepper, green pepper, and a thin cut of red onion and a bit of the Peanut Sauce.

Here is the full view…

And your obligatory close up, food porn worthy picture…

Pure heaven… wonderfully juicy, full of taste and supported by the homemade fries. For some extra flavor add Stone-Ground Mustard to the meal.

Totally worth your effort… even if you are just a frozen dinner kinda person.

This looked intriguing and since I had been turned on to the use of kale in various recipes I decided to give this a shot. I love onion – it doesn’t matter what kind – because I think it does so much for flavor and so the sweet onion here turned out to be a great flavor combination with the kale and swiss cheese.

What you’ll need:

1 large sweet onion

1 lb very lean ground beef (the leaner the better)

1. 5 tsp garlic powder

4 slices low fat swiss cheese

8 red or green kale leaves, stems removed

2 tsp olive oil

4 – texas toast, toasted

1. Peel and cut onion into 4 – 1/4 in thick slices. Shape meat loosely into 4 1/2 thick patties; sprinkle with garlic powder, 1/3 tsp salt, and 1/4 tsp pepper. Press one onion slice into the center of each patty and shape meat around onion until top of onion is flush with the surface of the meat patty (this was really tricky for me).

2. Place meat, onion side up on the rack of an uncovered grill and cook to desired doneness, turning once halfway through. Brush kale leaves lightly with oil and add to grill the last minute or so of grilling.

3. To serve, place two kale leaves and slice of cheese atop each bread slice. Top with a burger, onion side up and serve with choice of side (I did sweet potato fries). Makes 4 servings.

1. I could have melted the cheese on the kale in the oven for a minute or two.

2. The onion didn’t completely grill the way I would have liked.

But overall, the taste was a success. Just keep in mind that this is definitely a fork and knife type burger